HBTSR relied  upon our partners to select people they felt would benefit from the experience and would be good ambassadors for their school, area or for the project and some of our younger members or  young relations of our members were encouraged to participate as well.

What follows is a press release compiled by Eryl, Director of Communications and community engagement  for the Diocese of Swansea and Brecon. [With added comments and photos]  We look forward to an article by Sian, a group member who agreed to interview many of the participants during the  weekend and to write up their thoughts and her own. This will be posted separately.

Answer:-

They were all at Tregoyd PGL where they were speaking to participants in an activity weekend with a difference.

At first glance, there would have been nothing remarkable about the group of youngsters having fun on zip wires and bonding over building rafts in the summer sunshine of mid Wales.
But what made this group remarkable is that many of the young people are now trying to make their lives in Wales, having fled conflict and crisis as refugees or asylum seekers.
The activity weekend, held at the PGL Tregoyd Centre near Hay-on-Wye, brought together just over 70 youngsters from Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, many in local schools or colleges, together with some local teenagers who had come along to welcome and join in with them.
The event had been organised by the Hay, Brecon and Talgarth Sanctuary for Refugees, a group set up in response to the refugee crisis in 2015 which has since grown into a charity that hosts regular respite days around mid Wales.

Its secretary, Ailsa Dunn, said: “When we were planning this weekend,we wanted to bring young people from the three cities and also local youngsters, so they had a chance to interact with people from different cities and cultures and appreciate all they had in common.’’
“City of Sanctuary [a national charity campaigning for welcome and hospitality to people forced to seek sanctuary in the UK] had a project funded by money from the Guardian Christmas Appeal which they wanted to use to further some of their objectives – to show a culture of welcome, offer opportunities for friendship and solidarity between locals and people seeking sanctuary, to develop partnerships and networking across localities and to identify opportunities for working on issues within and across communities.”
“We knew that our population is welcoming and if we could find people to help us to enlist young people from across South Wales, we would be able to work together to give opportunities for new friendships to develop among participants and in so

doing we might find other activities we can share. Therefore working closely with PGL ,we arranged for a weekend of team-building and leadership activities and together with The Sanctuary Newport, Llanishen High School Cardiff , Tros Gynnal Plant [Advocacy services] , Bloom[ A Swansea based charity working with people seeking asylum] and City of Sanctuary Swansea we were able to find both young people who had always lived in Wales and those who were seeking sanctuary who were keen to participate.”

Minibuses and cars began arriving on Friday afternoon, and were met by Welsh Education Secretary, Kirsty Williams with  HBTSR Chair Margaret. After a minutes silence in memory of Mustafa who was due to be with us before his untimely death Kirsty spoke.

“I’m so pleased to be able to welcome so many young people to Tregoyd this weekend,” she said. “It’s fantastic to see so many people that have travelled here from Newport and Cardiff and Swansea but also students from our local high school at Gwernyfed and from Llanishen in Cardiff.
“It’s wonderful to see young people from such a wide variety of backgrounds coming together over the universal language of

 

football and fun and I’m so proud of constituents of mine who have gone out of their way to make these activities possible and to make people from different cultures who have experienced terrible things feel welcome.”

Pupils from Llanishen came with teacher Sian Owens who was instrumental in the school’s successful bid to become a school of sanctuary. This had been awarded that morning in a presentation by Julie Morgan AM meaning that the students were able to talk to two AMs in a single day!

“It started after the Brexit vote, and the rise in race hate crime,” Sian said. “I thought I’ve got to do something about it. I work with so many EAL (English as an additional language) students and I love them, and there was a feeling that all of a sudden they were being made to feel unwelcome in this country.”
“I went to a Hope not Hate conference and somebody suggested it to me that I should phone Rebecca Scott, Wales City of Sanctuary co-ordinator, she sent me the literature and then I put it to our headteacher and she said ‘go for it’. We met Ailsa a year ago at a similar conference and have been in touch ever since. My pupils have now made presentations about the need for friendship and acceptance at various meetings including the Senedd and a teachers conference ”
Arabic translation for much of the weekend was provided with a smile by Hassan,

who was forced to flee the war in Syria and first came to Wales two years ago from a refugee centre in Lebanon.
Now settled in Swansea, he is studying for a business degree at university- something he thought would be impossible when he arrived knowing no English. Hard work and help from various groups and people in Swansea means that he now speaks, reads and writes English and is keen to help others to assimilate.
“When we arrived at Tregoyd, we didn’t know many people here and people were asking how can we have a chat with anyone, but now after two days it’s easy and we’ve made friends,” he said.
“The activities have mixed people from different areas, cultures and backgrounds together to let people get to know each other.”
He added, ‘I never ever dreamed that I’d be interpreting for an AM, an inspirational speaker and an archbishop and that over a hundred people would be listening! ’
Another visitor, now at school in Newport, said: “It’s been good and it’s been tiring – we’ve had lots of dancing. It’s also been nice to get to know different people and

meet new friends. In Newport there’s a phone signal, Wi-Fi, but we all had a meltdown on Friday when we found out there was no signal but then you realise that’s fine, because when you have to talk to each other then you talk a lot more.”
Local lad Cian related how he was keen to come because ‘I would be way out of my comfort zone with both the activities and so many strangers but I figured that this would be an opportunity to grow, to meet new people and to learn about myself.’
The weekend was also an opportunity for the many groups set up in response to the humanitarian crisis, who provide advice and support to new arrivals, to get together and make new friends and swap ideas.

Mark Seymour, of Newport’s Sanctuary Project, said: “There’s been an equality about this weekend. If you’re a new arrival in Newport then you’re not on the same playing field as someone who’s been born and brought up there. Here, everyone’s arrived fresh to it, we’re all on the same footing and it’s been good to see friendships grow. Indeed some of the young people seeking sanctuary have very advanced problem solving skills and athleticism which is advantageous here.”

“All these cities have different, unique grassroots approaches to supporting asylum seekers and refugees, that are equally valid, working in different ways and it’s been nice to network. We’ve had schools, children’s advocacy service, refugee communities organisations, HBTSR all working together and with ideas for future cooperation.”

During the weekend, a visiting cub-master and a PGL instructor  praised the help of two young Sudanese men. “One of our cubs was distraught after he failed to go on a trapeze. These two lads stopped their activity, came over and made him laugh by fooling around and joking with him. I was getting nowhere but they saved the day!”

A visit on Saturday evening from Scary Guy, a motivational speaker giving his time for free, urged the group not to judge a person by their looks but to reach out and accept differences. ‘Don’t fight negativity with negativity and just be yourself ‘he urged them. Hassan, nicknamed Funny Guy for the evening, translated his wise words with a calm smile.

The weekend drew to a close with a blessing from the Archbishop of Wales John Davies, who said: “One of the greatest things we can do as human beings is to reach

out to people in need, reach out to people who are in desperate, desperate trouble in so many parts of the world, and tell them that they are valued, they are important, they are precious, and we want them to flourish.
“That is what all this has been about this weekend – helping you to get to know each other perhaps to understand each other better, while recognising each one of you has the right as a human being to flourish in the world. I hope you all feel, wherever you are – Cardiff, Newport, Swansea or anywhere else –that you are welcomed, valued and important.

 Some immediate feedback and thanks

  To all partners and leaders, Just to say a sincere thanks to all of you for all that you did to make the weekend so successful. An especial thanks to the group leaders who had a very hot and busy time trying to herd people in many directions at once, to ensure that they were safe and having fun  and all that with very little sleep. Please Sian will you thank Christoper, Rachel, Gareth, Jack, Teresa, Tom and Nevanka for all that they did too? [ Oh and congratulations to Nevanka and Tom – I gathered from my grandson that they became engaged]

I know everyone wants me to thank Steve for his extremely hard work throughout the weekend [ and before] to ensure that everything ran smoothly. I have thanked the guest speakers who I think did enhance the experience and well done to Rebecca for such a great impromptu speech at the end. Ailsa

What a fabulous weekend which I think was thoroughly enjoyed by all concerned. Good luck with the reporting back to City of Sanctuary! Steve

Well it was a great weekend I have ever had
Although it was warm but it’s doesn’t matter really
Please please thanks to all the PGL team and other groups who make this weekend special for us also a big thanks to you…
It was an honour to meet the scary man love him please invite him to the day trip I really want to meet him again and others people will be loved to see him.  A young leader